Child's Play: The Horse And Buggy Days
by TheFifthSister
Summary: HG tells her girls a story to pass the time when they're stuck in traffic


They'd hit the slowest moving traffic, inching forward every few minutes but it felt like forever to agitated Brit behind the wheel.

"What is taking so long?" HG complained, straining to see up ahead of the queue of cars in front of them.

"I told you not to go this way," Myka pointed out.

"This is the fastest route," HG countered, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.

"When we going home Mummy?" Emma asked from her booster seat in the back.

HG flicked her eyes up to the rear view mirror to see her daughter looking flustered and grumpy. "Soon sweetheart."

Myka flicked her a sympathetic look, feeling the same way. "There's just a lot of cars on the road and Mummy took a wrong turn."

"I did no such thing!" HG argued. "This is the way I always drive home."

"And I told you there were road works and you should have turned back there."

"Mama, I'm hot," Emma complained.

"Okay baby," Myka soothed. She cranked the SUVs AC and angled the vents into the back to cool her daughter down. "That better?" Emma nodded. "Good, we'll be home soon."

HG saw her fold her arms out the corner of her eye and the agitated look on her face. "I didn't do this on purpose, you know."

"I didn't say you did," Myka argued. "But you didn't listen to me."

"If you wanted to drive you should have," HG told her.

"You offered to drive because I was tired," Myka pointed out. "I'm not criticising you're driving. I told you not to go this way because there would be traffic. If you'd listened to me we wouldn't have been sitting here for the last ten minutes."

"I can't help these bloody cars won't move," HG snapped.

"Mummy, you said the bad word again," Emma scolded her. Myka cracked up, turning to her side to watch Emma as she wagged a finger at her mother. "You has to put in the money jar." Emma continued.

HG rolled her eyes but couldn't contain the laughter her 'telling off' bought forth. "When we get home I'll do it," HG watched her in the mirror. "Promise."

"You must almost have enough money in that jar for a new model Ems," Myka teased.

HG sighed in frustration. "I do miss the horse and buggy days sometimes."

"What's a buggy?" Emma asked.

"It's a cart that horses pull," Myka explained to her. "You know the picture we have at home of me and Mummy in our wedding dresses and you're in your pretty bridesmaid dress?"

"When I was a baby?" Emma asked.

HG smiled. "Yes. We're sitting in a buggy in that picture. When I was a little girl..."

"In England?" Emma interrupted.

"Yes, when I was a little girl in England," HG continued. "My mother and father would take Uncle Charles and myself to visit friends or to the market or even just out to the country in one." She told Emma. "I can't recall many traffic jams as a result." She added for Myka's benefit.

"Are the English peoples cars?" Emma asked. HG laughed as Myka smiled, watching her wife as she told stories.

"Not any longer, darling."

"You had one Mummy?"

"My parents did."

"Can you drive one?" Myka now found herself suddenly curious about the same thing. It was one thing she'd never thought about when picturing her wife in her previous life.

"I suppose. There was one time when I was forced to commandeer one as a culprit escaped across London. I'd never seen poor Wolly quite that shade of green," HG smirked.

"What happened?" Myka asked. "I've never heard this story."

HG edged the car forward as the line moved again and she flicked her gaze to her wife again. "Myself and Wolly were tracking a curiosity. Some pieces of art and even some jewels had gone missing from museums and art galleries around the city. No one had been seen coming or going, and these were large pieces that were being taken.

It came to the attention of the Warehouse and myself and Wolly were sent to help the police investigate. I'd gone over the reports and I had noticed a pattern to the thefts. Our thief was stealing the most popular pieces from each crime scene and I was quickly able to determine two possible locations that the culprit might hit."

"And you set up a stake out, right?" Myka asked.

"I knew which one they were going to hit. We convinced the police to stake out one while we went to the one they were going to hit."

"Mummy's sneaky," Emma giggled. Myka smiled at her daughter. Sneaky wasn't the word she'd have used. Stubborn. Smart. Clever. She knew the amount of discretion they had to use on retrievals and HG was a master at distraction when she wanted to be. Myka knew it firsthand.

The car edged forward again. "Low and behold our culprit showed up just before midnight. We followed him and watched as he attempted to steal a painting from the national museum. I talked our way past the guards, assuring them they we were there on business and gained access to the room."

"When you say talk..." Myka didn't really need to ask and the smug grin her wife gave her spoke volumes. She chuckled, rolling her eyes and listened to the rest of the story.

"We watched as the culprit took the painting from the wall and slipped a hat on his head as he moved towards an exit. Wolly had taken up a position next to the exit and blocked his retreat while I came up behind him to try to snag the artefact by surprise."

HG edged the car forward again, sparring a moment to check on her daughter and almost laughed when she saw her wide eyed and on the edge of the seat listening to her story.

"You okay back their sweetheart?"

"Yes, tell the story Mummy," Emma whined.

"Okay, so with his path blocked he turned to flee in the other direction and that's when he ran into me. He froze, unsure of what to do and that gave me enough time to make my move. I ran at him, wrestled the painting from his grip and he tried to flee. He straightened his hat and woosh. He was gone."

"Gone?" Emma and Myka asked together.

"The hat imbued him with the power to move rapidly and he was gone before we could stop him. We ran to the window in time to see him exit the building and choose a way to go. He was heading in the direction of the other location. Me and Wolly left the painting with a guard and ran out to the front of the museum. There was a horse and buggy outside and there was no way we'd reach the other location on time by foot so I climbed up and grabbed the reins. Wolly wasn't so thrilled with the idea of _borrowing_ it from someone but after some _gentle_ persuasion he got up there with me and we sped off across the city. Time wasn't on our side; I had to run the horses pretty ragged. Poor Wolly barely held on. The city was whipping past us, and let me tell you, those cobble streets aren't fun negotiate a vehicle down. By the time we got there Wolly was cursing the Regents for partnering him with me but I knew he didn't mean it."

Myka smirked as she pictured the whole scene. Her wife looking rather smug and poor Wolly looking worse for wear and she felt a little sympathy for her wife's former partner.

"Wow, you always drive fast," Emma giggled. Myka smirked, watching Emma out of the corner of her eye.

HG rolled the car forward more, stretching to see how far they had left to go before they were clear. "So, what happened?" Myka prompted.

"We got there in time to see the police closing the perimeter. We found an alternate entrance and cased the place, this time I had my tesla at the ready. We did the same thing, Wolly took one exit and I sneaked up behind him. As he turned with the painting he was stealing Wolly distracted him as he made a grab to wrestle it from him. He was so shocked we'd caught up to him he dropped the painting and tried to get past Wolly but I was quicker than him and fire my tesla. He dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes and I swept up the hat. We left the thief to the police, sneaking out of their before we had to answer any questions."

Emma laughed and clapped. "Mummy, you're cool."

"So, what was the deal with the hat?" Myka asked, curious as she couldn't remember anything about a hat from what she knew about Warehouse 12.

"The thief turned out to be a guard that worked at the Palace. He'd been given the hat as part of his uniform. Seems it had been imbued over the years by fearless guards who had run to the King and Queen's aid over the years. It had latched on to their need to get their as fast as possible."

Myka was impressed.

"Do you know the Queen Mummy?"

HG laughed. "Oh lord, my daughter is becoming more American. No, I am one of the many English people that does not know the Queen I'm afraid, darling." HG smiled at her daughter in the mirror and shot Myka a grin beside her. "Although, I'm not such a stranger to Buckingham Palace." She teased her wife.

"That was a good story," Emma told her.

yka smiled, nodding her agreement as she reached over to squeeze HG's hand and lifted it to kiss. "Mummy is wonderful."

Finally they'd reached the front of the queue and were able to pull around the works. "Finally!" HG was relieved. "Won't be much longer now."

"Don't forget the money!" Emma reminded her.

Myka laughed at the look on HG's face. "That's my girl."


End file.
